The Very Hungry Caterpillar
In anticipation of revealing the gender of our first grandchild, I used one of my favorite children's books as the inspiration for our celebration cake.
The Cake
In the beginning it would be a Neapolitan, chocolate, white chocolate, and red velvet, three tier cake with white chocolate ganache under fondant; but, as the gum paste decorations evolved so did the cake. I added the square bottom tier, soon to realize I still did not have room for all of the items in the story. Next, came the second square layer...finally, room for all of the decorations! I stood back and looked, thinking that something was still missing, "what could fill the empty space on top of the final cake". At last I had it, a tree! "Google, how do I create a 3-D gum paste tree."
The Tree
The tree began with a mass tangle of floral wire; first the trunk, then the roots, next branches grew from the trunk, then entire tree was then wrapped in brown floral wire, individually formed and wired leaves were taped to the branches, finally, brown gum paste was applied to the entire bark area. Alas, a wonderful home for a caterpillar to form its chrysalis and begin a beautiful transformation.
The Details
Each detail of the cake was created from gum paste and painted with gel food coloring mixed vodka and dusted with various colors of petal dust. To create the grass and sky, gel food coloring was thinned with vodka and painted on with sponge and natural bristle brushes.
This cake was a true labor of love!!! I wish I had kept up with the exact hours I spent creating it, but I am sure in was well in excess of 100!
The Party
Family and friends gathered for the exciting news...is the baby a boy or girl. Each guest dressed in either blue or pink based on their prediction of the gender. Teams were created and each person got a pink or blue balloon, pin holes had been made in the balloons which were not the gender of the baby. Then the big reveal, everyone blew...
The Baby
She arrived on February 20, 2014
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